Meaning "regulation governing play of a game, etc." is from 1690s. Phrase rule of thumb first attested 1690s. Rule of law "supremacy of impartial and well-defined laws to any individual's power" is from 1883. Meaning "strip used for making straight lines or measuring" is recorded from mid-14c. Typography sense is attested from 1680s.

Example Sentences for ruled

They ruled only a few years and then their domains fell to pieces.

All, both rulers and ruled, are men, and prone to follow after their lusts.

If I can only get at the bottom of what has been done to-day, you'll get ruled off, and you'll stay ruled off.

A man that would dope a two-year-old ought to be ruled off, sure.

Mr. Snow told me as gently as he could that the judges had ruled me out entirely.

No longer would the earth be ruled from fair Valhalla's heights.

A woman by whom the realm is ruled when there is a king, and through whom it is ruled when there is not.

Every day, he ruled the castle and kingdom, as if he had always been the monarch.

Hela, who ruled there, said Baldur might return if all things above mourned for him.